The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Monday that Mongolia is not included in the nation’s territory under the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, citing previous statements by the Ministry of the Interior.
The council made the clarification after a legislative hearing earlier in the day, during which Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) was shown three maps and asked to point to the one showing “the territory of the Republic of China according to its existing national boundaries,” as described by the Constitution.
The three maps presented by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) were one showing Mongolia and China as one country, another showing them as two separate countries and one of just Taiwan. Lai picked the second option, but was criticized by DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) for choosing a map of the People’s Republic of China.
However, the council defended Lai’s choice by pointing to the Ministry of the Interior’s regulations on maps, which began treating Mongolia as independent after Taiwan set up a representative office there in 2002 during the former DPP administration.
Then-minister of the interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) cited the Enforcement Rules for the Act Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) in supporting the decision to amend the map regulations. The rules define the ROC’s “mainland” area as the region under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
Mongolia became an independent country in 1945 after the ROC government signed a treaty with the former Soviet Union.
However, the ROC government revoked its recognition of Mongolia’s independence after the treaty was abolished by the legislature in 1953 because of a breach of the deal by the Soviet Union.
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